The Department - John Pring

The Department

How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence

(Autor)

Buch | Softcover
304 Seiten
2024
Pluto Press (Verlag)
978-0-7453-4989-3 (ISBN)
21,15 inkl. MwSt
A thoroughly researched exposé of the bureaucratic violence and hostility of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) over the last 30 years
In the early 2010s, reports began to emerge of deaths that were being linked to a government department. Suicide notes, coroners' reports, and investigations by public bodies pointed to failings within the Department for Work and Pensions—the DWP—the government body responsible for the disability benefits system.



As years passed, and austerity tightened its grip, the death toll mounted, and an even more disturbing picture developed: how bureaucracy, politicians, and the private sector had combined over thirty years to reckless, deadly effect.



For the last decade, disabled journalist John Pring has meticulously pieced together how the DWP ignored pleas to correct fatal flaws in the social security system and covered up its role in the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of disabled people. Spending years researching the heartbreaking stories of ten individuals who died, we hear of how their bereaved families have fought for justice and accountability.



Through exclusive new research, including historical documents from the National Archives that can be revealed publicly for the first time, The Department describes how slow, bureaucratic violence has led over three decades to the deaths of countless disabled people who relied on the state’s support.

John Pring is founder and editor of the news agency Disability News Service. He is co-creator of the Deaths by Welfare timeline, and co-editor and specialist advisor on the award-winning Museum of Austerity project. He has written for mainstream publications including the Guardian, Observer, Daily Mirror and Private Eye, and was associate producer on the award-winning Dispatches documentary, The Truth About Disability Benefits. He is also the author of Longcare Survivors: The Biography of a Care Scandal.

Preface: The death of Philippa Day

Part I: 1989-1997: Peter Lilley, incapacity benefits and how ill-health became a luxury

1. The first memo

2. A promising area for cuts, and the first steps to violence

3. ‘Ignorant’ ministers, the insurance industry, and Lilley’s little list

4. Scapegoats, the all work test, and how ill-health became a luxury

5. Periodic purges, Unum and selective use of evidence

6. The death of David Holmes, and the causal link

Part II: 1997-2010: DWP, New Labour and the ‘reckless’ work capability assessment

7. Labour’s change of tone, Atos, and a failed rebellion

8. The Woodstock conference, ‘malingering’ and an outlaw company

9. A groundswell of unease

10. The death of Stephen Carré

Part III: 2010-2014: The coalition, austerity, and deaths by welfare

11. Atos, activism, and the climate of panic

12. The death of David Clapson

13. The death of Mark Wood

14. The death of David Barr

15. The death of Ms DE

16. DWP, peer reviews, and weaponising time

17. The death of Faiza Ahmed

Part IV: 2014-2022: Cover-up, investigations, and the truth about DWP

18. Michael O’Sullivan, and the prevention of future deaths

19. Iain Duncan Smith, the UN and 590 suicides

20. The death of Jodey Whiting

21. The death of James Oliver

22. Philippa Day’s inquest and the 28 ‘problems’

23. The death of Errol Graham

24. The death of Roy Curtis

Epilogue

Erscheint lt. Verlag 20.8.2024
Verlagsort London
Sprache englisch
Maße 140 x 216 mm
Themenwelt Literatur Essays / Feuilleton
Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Sozialpädagogik
Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie
ISBN-10 0-7453-4989-7 / 0745349897
ISBN-13 978-0-7453-4989-3 / 9780745349893
Zustand Neuware
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